Potty Trained Child Bed Wetting

My 4 year old wets the bed as well, but is day time trained. She just wears a pull-up diaper to bed (Huggies slip-on b/c they are way absorbent), though lately she's been waking at times to go pee, so it looks like she's night-training herself. I wet the bed until I was 7, my older sis until she was 8 and my little sis until she was 16!!!

She has had a growth spurt inside and her bladder may not be big enough right now.

She may be starting a growth spurt and therefore sleeping more deeply and her brain is not shutting down the urine production. Glitch...lol.

Many things happen during these years and we can't always figure it out. You sound like you are doing the right things. Let her know it's not her fault like you're doing and she'll get through it in a few weeks or months.

Nine times in three weeks could indicate a medical problem. It's worth a check-up.

Go with your gut on pull-ups - there's no reason to reintroduce diapers after a year.

A plastic cover under the sheet is great. If it's a small accident, a beach towel over the sheet will do until morning.

Minimize liquids in the evening. She might be drinking more than you think. My kids will down my glass of water while I'm out of the room ...

Take her to the bathroom before you go to bed. Just carry her in and set her down. She'll barely wake up.

Night dryness is completely different than potty training.
Obviously, she is unaware of doing it, so how can this be anything other than her bladder is no9t mature enough to hold it all night?

Make it easy for all involved, let her wear a Pull Up to bed or layer sheets and waterproof pads for easy bed changes.

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4 things I would suggest:
1) Urine test, just to rule out bladder infection (unlikely given what you've said), but always possible.
2) Make sure your daughter's warm enough at night. I found (about 25 years ago now!) that my son would have bedtime accidents, especially during the warmer months, when there'd be a temperature change (say a cool day/night in May or June).
3) Limit fluids within 2 hours of when your daugher goes to sleep.
4) Wake your daughter up 1-2 hours after she's gone to sleep for the night for a bathroom visit (especially if she didn't urinate just before bedtime). She doesn't have to be fully awake, just try to see if she'll go.

My youngest son wet the bed up until 6 or 7. When I was talking to my older sister about it she told me she wet the bed until she was 12. Apparently when one of her son's was wetting the bed and she mentioned it to the doctor he told her it was a hormonal imbalance. When you are asleep and have to pee a hormone secretes from your pituitary gland to wake you up. Some kids it takes longer for this gland to develop than in others. She told me about a nasal spray you can get from your doctor...they spray one spray in each nostril before bed. Holy cow it works! So if you can't find any other explanations talk to the doctor. Good Luck!

Has she ever had fevers that are high and unexplained? The only reason I ask is my daughter did the same thing, and it turns out she has kidney reflux so that is why she wet that long. She is 9 and just had surgery to fix it. NO ONE ever suggested that she had the kidney reflux until it got really bad and now she has lost 1/3 of her left kidney.

Don't assume it isn't medical just because it is happening at night. Infections can affect the brain too!

Have her checked for a UTI and swabbed for strep throat (which can affect the basal ganglia and influence all kinds of strange health issues without necessarily resulting in her feeling like she has a sore throat. The best test is to do a rapid swab along with a 72 hour culture, since the rapids sometimes come back with a false negative.

Have her checked for uti and diabetes, growth. Then if all clear talk to her and make sure no one is stressing her...making fun or hurting her.

Buy some waterproof bed pads to put directly under her when she sleeps.
It makes clean up WAY easy.
I have about 4 of them that I got from Amazon.
My kids' sheets are never soiled because I use the bed pads.
My kids are 5 and 9.
My daughter was having night accidents even at 7 years old. Even if she was potty trained from 2 years old.
My son still wears nighttime diapers.
NORMAL.

Childhood, is never, finite.
AND childhood also means, they have pee accidents.
ALL of my Daughter's Teachers... from Preschool to Kindergarten to 1st Grade, ALSO said that kids at these ages have accidents- at night or at school too. It is childhood. They have accidents. It is normal.
Accidents happens even until 7 years old and per Pediatrician's this is normal as well.

Again, nothing is finite in a child. It is not a one-way developmental direction. Mistakes happens. Physiological development is still happening as well. And fear of "back sliding" is only going to make it worse. For her. And you all.
Because, this is not "back sliding." This is, NORMAL, pee accidents.
Or she is a very deep sleeper.
And personally, I do not believe in waking a child all night just to go pee. They get lack of sleep.

Just get waterproof bed pads, and use a night time diaper for now.

What you are experiencing is common.
It is childhood.
I know of no child.... that has never had a pee accident.
Then before you know it, it is a thing of the past.

Again, night time dryness is something that is not attained until even 7 years old.
Your child is only 3.5 years old.

How much does she drink at night? My daughter has been potty trained for a year and a half, she is 5. One thing we did when we started potty training was not give her anything to drink after 6:00 (her bedtime is at 8:00) except a few sips of water and half a cup of milk. For the first year we also took her to the potty before we went to bed (between 10 and 10:30). She barely woke up and rarely had accidents. Please don't go back to pull ups, you have made it so far. Another thing you can do until you figure this out is double make the bed- sheets, plastic, another set of sheets. Good luck, please don't give up until you try out a couple of things.

C.

My oldest son is just now, at age 9, no longer wetting the bed. My 2nd son had been dry at night for awhile after potty training (I was happy to think we weren't going to have to deal with years of bed wetting again), but then he started wetting regularly, and now a year later is still in pullups at night, wet nearly every morning. My daughter was a breeze to potty train at age 2 and my first indication that she may be ready was that she was waking up dry a lot. Over the next 1-2 years we had a few periods where she had a few night accidents in a row and it was often accompanied by damp panties during the day (like not quite making it to the bathroom in time). The incidents never lasted more than a week to 10 days at a time and they resolved on their own. I always attributed it to growth spurts thinking maybe she just grew and her bladder was trying to catch up again. I don't think having her wear pull-ups at night will "encourage" anything. She has no control over this. Use pullups to help her keep her sheets dry until this phase passes.